Radical Party (Aldegar)
The Radical Party is an Aldegarian political Party founded in 3302. It is committed primarily to liberalism & the republican form of government. Since it's electoral breakthrough in May of 3306, it has been consistently one of the largest parties in Aldegar. Leadership Structure The party leadership is relatively amorphous, having emerged from the party's time as, essentially, a campaign group trying to break into the mainstream. It's structure emerged partly out of the needs brought about by the rapid development from a small think-tank to a major political force & as such has often been shaped more by practical concerns than theories & ideals of party-structure. The structures of the party are as follows: Party Congress This 500-member body is elected by party branches. It is the ultimate decision making force within the party & is qualified to make all decisions relevant to party policy, leadership & strategy, although it frequently defers to the views of particular members & committees considered authoritative. Before 3307 the Congress was largely a fiction, with meetings held, on average, once a year at irregular intervals & attendance varying between 70 & 325 members present. During these early meetings, the Congress essentially did nothing more than ratify the decisions of other parts of the Party apparatus. However, in the months following the Party's surge to a plurality in the election of May 3306, great efforts were made to regularise the institution & since then it has met at least once every 3 months & been recognised throughout the Party as a major font of authority. Chair & Deputy Chair of the Party Congress The Chair or, in the Chairs absence, the Deputy Chair leads discussion in Congress in the manner of a parliamentary speaker. They are elected directly by Congress, but so far there has not been a contested vote, with each of the office-holders having been proposed as consensus candidates by the major figures of the Party. They are recognised as significant figures in the Party &, mediating disputes being part of their function have long-striven for broad acceptability among all groups in Congress Chairs: *Tobias Barrett, 3304-09 *Nelson Hughley, 3309-present Deputy Chairs: *Philip Helgren, 3304-07 *Nelson Hughley, 3307-09 *Katherine Penniman, 3309-present Party President The Party President is elected by Congress to be the official face of the Party & to provide a clear leader to the entire organisation. The Presidency is not considered mutually exclusive with any other Party office. It has, thus far, been an uncontroversial role &, like the Chair & Deputy Chair, there has yet to be a contested election to the office. The President has a right to speak & make proposals in Congress & has precedence over all other Party officials. It is typically the President who proposes chairs to the Party's various committees & initiatives with the President's backing are typical carried by Congress. Presidents: *Tobias Barrett, 3304-07 *Philip Helgren, 3307-present Committees The Party's committees are advisory bodies to Congress. They can be formed to advise Congress on any matter but typically take the form of standing policy committees or ad hoc committees to investigate, plan, or devise policy on a particular event or issue. Typically a committee is created & its chair chosen by a motion of Congress, with the Chair being free to propose their own shortlist of members for Congressional approval. The Manifesto & Policy Conference At its foundation, the Manifesto & Policy Conference was the first committee created by the Party. It was a subset of the 75-member Congress of that time & produced the Party's first manifesto. However, after the publication of the manifesto, the Conference was superceded by the more focussed & specific policy committees & thus never met again. The Committee on Strategy & Political Affairs This body was created to develop the Party's strategy, largely by co-founder Philip Helgren. It is often considered the brain of the Party & is sometimes resented for its enormous influence & tendency to be secretive, only revealing a small part of its plans to open sessions of Congress & prefering to disclose them in their entirety to only the "top brass". Chairs of the Committee on Strategy & Political Affairs *Philip Helgren, 3304-07 *Katherine Penniman, 3307-present History "The Radical", Foundation: 3302-3304 In 3302, journalist & author Tobias Barrett published a pamphlet entitled "The Radical", in which he lamented the complacent nature of Aldegarian liberal republicanism & the co-operation of the People's Party, the old pillar of republican values, with parties which fell short, in Mr. Barrett's eyes, of the values on which the Republic was founded. Philip Helgren, then-secretary to a neighbourhood branch of the PP in Aldegar, was deeply impressed by the pamphlet's arguments, which resonated with his own frustration at the PP's playing second fiddle to the New Direction Party. He approached Barrett & the two set about discussing the possibility of a new party to challenge NDP & Nationalist dominance. Within two months the Radical Party was founded. They gathered a group of roughly 200 potential supporters, through public meetings & correspondence with like-minded public figures & soon had formed the original Party Congress of 75 of those first members. The Congress approved Helgren's strategy of public campaigns & participation as a stand-alone party in elections & Barrett's plan for a Conference to formulate the Party's Manifesto, which would be submitted to the People's Assembly by petition. The petition was not considered upon its original submission due to the upcoming 3303 election. Unsurprisingly, without the necessary exposure, Mr. Barrett came last in that year's Presidential election, with fewer than 30,000 votes (about 0.05% of the poll) & the Party's lists for the PA fared similarly badly, with fewer than 500 votes in Kemoku. Upon debate in the next session the Manifesto was unanimously rejected, which disheartened several of the Party's more idealistic members, but was dismissed as unimportant by Helgren, the point being to gain entry into parliament, so as to directly influence the law. Formalisation of the Party & Early Campaigns: 3304-3306 Unperturbed by the dismissal of the Manifesto in the PA, Helgren began to lobby to have the recommendations of the Party's Campaign for Youth & Education & Campaign for Increased Public Representation signed into law. Having proven to voters the hostility of the existing parties to the Radical's platform with the unanimous rejection of the manifesto, the successful passage of the RP's proposal for obligatory school-attendence & sex-ed & the support of the NP & PDP for the proposed raising of the age of majority to 18, an increase in the size of PA to 399 members & comulsory state-education showed that the RP was a party well able to navigate the legislative process, even without MPAs, & to work with those it would not normally agree with. At this time the Party Constitution was formalised, with the Congress taking shape, the order of leadership between Barrett & Helgren formalised & Helgren's unofficial strategy directorate being given the status of a Party Committee. Sweeping to Power: 3306-07 The results of the 3306 election came as an enormous, but very welcome surprise to the Party. With 61 seats, the Party went from unrepresented campaign group to the largest party in the People's Assembly, achieving pluralities in Somasi & Hikirena & a majority of seats in Kemoku. This surge took seats from all other parties & annihilated the PP-NDP government's 23-seat majority, resulting in a situation where no two-party coalition could be formed without the RP. The particularly heavy losses for the PP (which lost 20 of its 58 MPAs, relegated it from first to third place) & the PDP (which lost two thirds of its 30 MPAs) made the RP the undisputed leader of the liberal-left. In the presidential election, Barrett went through to the second round against incumbent, Harold Saxon of the NDP, & though he was ultimately defeated, his success in Round 1 confirmed the Party's place as the new major force in Aldegarian politics. This upset result, however, created an unforeseen crisis in the Party, as the 61 new MPAs & the Party generally struggled to adapt to their new place as Aldegar's leading force. This meant a change in leadership structure & the necessity of negotiations to lead, rather than join, a coalition. It took several months to adjust to this situation & form a coalition with the PP, but in June 3307, Philip Helgren became the first Radical Prime Minister of the Third Republic at the head of a cabinet which included four PP ministers. Out of respect to this new situation, Barrett resigned the Party Presidency in favour of Helgren, so as to make the new PM's authority within the Party clear. In turn, Helgren resigned his Deputy Chairmanship of Congress & Chairmanship of the Committee on Strategy & Political Affairs, the Congress electing Finance Minister Nelson Hughley to the former office & approving Helgren's nomination of MPA Katherine Penniman to the latter. The RP as Leading Party: 3307-15 Mr. Helgren's coalition proved remarkably stable, surviving an attempt by the NDP to form a grand coalition, led by the PP, to make the RP the sole opposition party, but the PP rejected the proposal, confirming the strength of the coalition. Aside from passing the Works & National Monuments Bills, Helgren's first term was taken up mainly with cementing the Party's power, with a view to taking the Presidency. The NDP had proposed the abolition of the PM's office, giving leadership of the government to President Saxon of their party. This made ejecting Saxon from the Presidency a top-priority, as it was feared that he might have dictatorial ambitions. Helgren & Penniman successfullu negotiated for PP & PDP support for Barrett's candidacy in the 3309 election, after having taken pains to ensure that the Nationalists would not endorse Saxon's re-election. The result was that Tobias Barrett was finally elected to the Presidency with 54% in the second round. In parliamentary election of the same year, both coalition parties took small losses but ultimately retained their majority. Barrett, for the dignity of the office of President, resigned as Chair of the Party Congress, being replaced by his Deputy, Nelson Hughley, with Ms. Penniman taking of the Deputy Chair. In the PA of 3309-12, the RP successfully passed major planks of their platform, such as a ban on concealed weapons, an end to the Arms Industry Subsidy, banning private schools, legalisation of GM research & the use of chemical fertilisers & pesticides & a rise in the age of majority to 18. A proposal to increase the size of the PA to 399 achieved a majority, but not the necessary super-majority to amend the constitution. It was the only vote lost by the RP in its entire nine years as first party of the state. The RP's final term as largest party saw the liberalisation of the law on abortion, the passage of the Secularising Missionaries Bill & the abolition of forced labour in prisons as well as the fending off of a new NDP grand-coalition plan, this time aimed at excluding the PP. It was at this time that a dichotomy began to show between the RP & the increasingly conservative NP. Ideology The Radical Party discribes itself as Liberal Republican. Defence of the Republic & constitutionalism & the liberalisation of society are its main raisons d'etre. During the attempt by the NDP to establish a presidential republic, the RP released a statement concerning what forms of government it considered acceptable. In it an elected president is deemed essential & if that president is to be head of government, they should, says the statement, have the exclusive right to nominate a cabinet. A semi-presidential system in which the President nominates a cabinet lead by a Prime Minister was also deemed acceptable, as was a parliamentary system in which any party may nominate a cabinet. The substance of the statement was that so long as one of these systems were in place the RP would oppose changing it, but would actively seek the overthrow of any other system. Category:Political parties in Aldegar